The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-01-15
BLIGHT OF THE SALOON.


1t Is Not Only Seen Upon the Husband
and Father But Embraces Innocent
Creatures Dependent Upon Him.
What would be thought of the med
zeal administration which, in the time
of great epidemic, concerned itself
chiefly in providing additional hospital
accommodations, and paid no attention
to the origin and mode of prevention
of the prevailing disease? In the case
of the saloon in society the facts are
continually in evidence. Our police
courts are mainly occupied with the
petty offenses which spring directly or
indirectly from drink. Through them
drift the nlyriad wrecks which strew
the path Of progress. In them is ex-
hibited, every day and all day, the ex-
tent, depth, paralyzing influence, of
the saloon. 1t is bad enough in politics,
but its social effects, especially among
the poor, are as those of a pestilence.
The cruder element of Il community
is brutalized and retarded in its
growth by this influence. Another
element, that of the physically or intel
lectually feeble always considerable,
and increasing with the growth of COM
petitiYe pressure), is condemned to a
wretched fate by the same instru-
mentality. The people who have not
the energy of mind or body to form
clear and practical purposes, or to put
them in operation if formed, are the
easiest victims of the saloon. As a
rule they are sensitive, often morbidly
so. They brood over their weakness
and their failure. Naturally prone to
depression, they become jaundiced and
Responding. From that state of mind
to the craving for any kind of stimu-
liant the transition is natural and swift,
and the saloon does the rest There
are thousands of families doomed to
Indulgence, disappointment, misery,
through life, that might have lived at
least in decent poverty and with self
respect, but to-day are plunged in hope
less ruin by drink, and are sinking out
of sight in the quicksand,
The churches lament the alienation
of the poor and the working classes.
The Indifference of these to religion is
a standing cause of regret. The clergy
say it is almost impossible to get near
the hearts of the masses. The sa-
loon is not guiltlcss in the matter, for it
represents all the tendencies and infu-
ences which make most strongly against
religion and morality, and its atnos-
phere is quite as fatal to spiritual de-
vclopment as the drink it dispenses is
to the health Of the body. The poor
suffer in thousand ways through their
poverty, and one of the abuses prac-
ticcd most audaciously upon them is
the adulteration of all the intoXicants
sold to them. Alcoholic drinks made
by the most honest processes are bad
enough in their consequences, but the
drinks of commerce are sophisticated
to such an extent that those who use
them habtually and freely are exposed
to whole catalogue of diseases from
which our ancestors, with all their in
temperance, were free. The effect of
many of the adulterants commonly em-
plored, moreover, is to excite the nerv-
GUS system and act toXically upon the
cerebral centers, with the frequent re-
suit of melting to maniacal deeds,
which may very easily be ascribed to
native sayagery of disposition.
The saloon, in fact, is an institution
for the compromising and dispensation
of poisons. These poisons, when
taken in excess (and sometimes when
taken in moderate quantities), cloud
the reason of the victim, extinguish for
the time his conscience and his moral
convictions stimulate all that is fero-
cious and brutal in him, and impel
him frequently to the preparation Of
crimes. They do not affect all alike.
While they render some savage and
malignant, they make others imbecile
and incapable of self-protection, and
yet others they rouse to immortality.
Society, however, is exposed to injury
in some way from all who drink; and
since it is impossible to be sure that
any who drink may not drink to eX-
cess, and since all who drink to excess
are liable to become irresponsible, the
danger is perennial. OF its reality no